


I Tell Her Sweet Lies

by kwillpleasedont



Series: one shots only one shots [16]
Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band), LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Dreamcatcher and Chaewon know magic lol, F/F, Ghosts, Injury, Injury Recovery, Inspired by Chase Me (Music Video), Inspired by Fly High (Music Video), Inspired by Goodnight (Music Video), Inspired by Luv4eva (Music Video), Inspired by You & I (Music Video), Jiwoo breaks her ankle really badly so, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 02:48:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15185057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kwillpleasedont/pseuds/kwillpleasedont
Summary: "Death may be the greatest of all human blessings." -Socrates(Title from Sweet Lies by Exo)





	I Tell Her Sweet Lies

**Author's Note:**

> So this is only proofread about a third of the way through. God bless you if you finish this monster
> 
> Yo, y'all should follow me on twitter for fic updates and everything: kwillstarship

To say their school had their cliques would be an understatement. Their school was selective, only the elite were allowed to attend. They didn't except transfers once the year had started and by then, friends had already grouped together, bonds were already formed, and rooms were already picked and full. If you were a new student, it would be wise to find a few friends and stick close to them. This school without friends wasn't survivable.

The all girls school was notorious for several things. One being their secluded location, choosing to be deep in the woods, far away from the prying eyes of the public and the harsh whispers of the media. Another was the school's name: Loona. Many people thought it was a somehow overlooked misspelling, but the name was always intended to be Loona, spelled just the way it is.

There were plenty of rumors of what went on in Loona. Rumors of magic lurking in every book, hiding in every painting, burning in every lit candle. Kids most often believing in the ghosts that haunt Loona's hallowed halls. Teenagers musing about how it must be for only rich kids whose parents have pull. Adults assuming the desired results of student behavior were only being reached by sharp swats to the backs of their thighs with a cane or raps of a ruler against soft knuckles.

A class containing only nineteen girls would seem like a low number to someone who attended a public high school, but to the girls in Loona it was crowded. Knocking elbows in the hallways between classes, tripping over each other's footing in dance lessons, group scoldings when the one who made the mistake wouldn't reveal themselves.

Jiwoo hates that the most. If you get caught doing something you shouldn't have, you should own up to it and move on, she didn't understand why no one else got that. Her roommates specifically. She loves Chaewon, Sooyoung, and Hyejoo, she does, but she doesn't love when one of them leaves their dirty socks out for the Mistress to find. She's such a loud woman with a booming voice that gets even more amplified when she has the girls disobedience to fuel her.

They all claim to know nothing of it and Jiwoo has half a mind to think that one of the other girls would do it just to get under their skin and start something, but as before stated, cliques were tight knit. They didn't bother with ones that weren't their own. And Jiwoo knew better. She knew Sooyoung would take her socks off late at night when the other girls were already asleep and stuff them way down in the laundry basket, but Jiwoo couldn't bring herself to say anything about it. Jiwoo is of the belief that everyone is their own person and no one can define you but you, but that's so hard to stick by when she never sees Jinsoul without Jungeun or Yerim. Haseul without Heejin or Vivi or Yeojin or Hyunjin. Minji without her gaggle of girls. Herself without Chaewon or Sooyoung or even Hyejoo.

Jiwoo has always been too observant for her own good, her own father had said so when she asked about the shades of lipstick on his collar that her mother did not own. Jiwoo is quiet and she pretends she doesn't see the locked chest Bora keeps hidden under her bed, or all the bloody tissues and handkerchiefs in Handong's trash, or the camera tucked under Yoohyeon's pillow, or when Sooyoung sneaks out of class.

She keeps her nose pressed in her books, keeps her feet dancing the same steps she's been taught. She just wants to get through high school alive. All she wants is to carry out the rest of her sentence in the school and leave and never look back. She doesn't like lying or keeping secrets, but when the Mistress asks her, in private, if she knows where Sooyoung goes when she sneaks out, she always says no.

Of course she knows. She'd have to be blind and totally not in love with Sooyoung to not see it. Jiwoo's only a little ashamed to admit that she watches Sooyoung maybe a little more than she should. The way her hair flips over her shoulder as they dance or how gentle her fingers look when she turns the pages of a well worn book or how her lips turn a darker shade of pink when the hot rim of a mug touches them or-

Sooyoung dipped herself into Jiwoo's cold, white heart and colored it red with affection.

Jiwoo just wishes that Sooyoung would be more careful or at least a little discreet. She's getting sloppy in her confidence. Just because Mistress hasn't yelled at Sooyoung for skipping lessons doesn't mean she hasn't noticed. Jiwoo has seen the evil twitch of the woman's lips when Sooyoung thinks she's successfully left the class unheard.

For as much as she loves Sooyoung, she wishes she didn't.

The first time Sooyoung asks her to sneak out with her, Jiwoo's stomach is so full of butterflies she doesn't think there's room for anything else. She tip-toed out of class like she did everyday, but this time she stuck her hand back into the room, waved Jiwoo over. Jiwoo thought she had imagined it, that the ghosts her little cousin warned her of really did live here. But then Sooyoung's head peeked out from behind the wall when Jiwoo didn't move and she shot a small smile, making another motion for Jiwoo to follow her. Jiwoo had always been weak and could never say no to Sooyoung.

That day, Sooyoung gently unbuckled Jiwoo's shoes for her, showed her where to hide them inside so the Mistress wouldn't find them. She took Jiwoo's hand and led her outside after unlocking the big glass doors. She held her hand all the way through the forest so she wouldn't get lost, only letting go once they reached a small lake that Sooyoung said was her own little secret, no matter how many people knew about it.

_"How is it your secret if others know about it?"_

_"Because I named her."_

_"Her?"_

_"The lake silly. The moon is a girl so it only makes sense the water she controls is too."_

_"You aren't making any sense, the moon controls the tides, like the ocean. But what did you name the lake?"_

_"I named her Chuu."_

_"Chuu?"_

_"Yeah. It kinda sounds like Jiwoo, don't you think?"_

Sooyoung stuck her hand in the water for the briefest of seconds before pulling it back out. She held it above the water and let small droplets find their way down her fingertips to drip back into the lake. Jiwoo hoped Sooyoung could find her way home like the water does. How water always finds its way back again and again. Sooyoung's home was in her heart, always has been. Without parents to speak of and an aunt that resented her, Jiwoo was the only family Sooyoung really had. Jiwoo was glad she was such a big part of Sooyoung's life.

They continued their routine of sneaking out of class daily. It was so refreshing to Jiwoo, to finally feel the sun on her skin and the dirt beneath her feet and the water in her hands. The wild deer that grazed in the fields and drank from the lake were like nothing Jiwoo had seen with her own eyes before. It was truly something otherworldly, something untouched by darkness.

The day they took Chaewon with them for the first time, a blue morpho landed right on her hand, like something out of a movie. Chaewon seemed to be a magnet for the magical. One of the deer Jiwoo loved so much walked right up to Chaewon and let her pet it, as if it were someone's pet dog. If Jiwoo hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed it, but on their way back to the school, fresh grass sprouted under Chaewon's feet and flowers bloomed when she touched them. Sooyoung thought she was exaggerating when she told her, but Jiwoo had seen it. She knew it happened.

Naturally, in the progression of things, Jiwoo thought Sooyoung would invite Hyejoo with them a few days later. Now, Sooyoung and Hyejoo weren't close at all, by any means, but Sooyoung was never outright rude to her. It was more like Sooyoung didn't acknowledge her. Jiwoo thought it would be different now that they all were sneaking out together. Jiwoo hoped it would be different.

Where Sooyoung was indifferent, Jiwoo liked Hyejoo. She was a nice girl, if a little shy. She was beautiful with long, silky black hair and a full smile with red lips. Hyejoo always took time to ask how Jiwoo was and if things with Sooyoung had changed at all, she always chased Jiwoo's fears away with such ferocity that reminded Jiwoo of a wolf. Hyejoo seemed to like Sooyoung so Jiwoo always wondered why there was distance between the two.

Something unusual occurred on the day where they all showed up to their lesson only to find it had been canceled that day. Sooyoung saw this as an opportunity to spend the afternoon with her arms wrapped tightly around Jiwoo and Chaewon. She practically dragged them both out of the school, one wrist in each hand. Jiwoo had tried to suggest that they take Hyejoo with them but Sooyoung said she only had two hands so she could only hold two more

When Sooyoung had finished the sentence with a laugh, she turned back around. Smile turned toward the sun and hair flying off her shoulder as she rushed forward, eager to make it to the lake. Jiwoo felt something, a pull dragging her backwards and making her slower than Chaewon and Sooyoung even if she was only a beat behind. She couldn't stop, Sooyoung's hold too tight in her hand, but she looked over her shoulder.

Hyejoo was on the second floor balcony, leaning on it. Her head was resting in her hand and Jiwoo couldn't decipher the look on her face. She caught glimpses of wonder and longing, but then she thought she saw jealousy and envy. Hyejoo was always a puzzle Jiwoo couldn't quite figure out. Jiwoo thinks of all the nights she had stayed up crying over Sooyoung only for Hyejoo to come down from the bunk above her and hold her, wipe her tears. Jiwoo could feel the gentle caress of her hand, but now it feels like a slap, especially adorned with the look she's shooting them.

That day when they come back, the Mistress is waiting for them at the front door. Her hands are on her hips and she's wearing a look of arrogance on her face. Sooyoung pushes Chaewon and Jiwoo behind her, adamant on taking the punishment for herself, blaming herself, saying it was all her idea and that Jiwoo and Chaewon had no idea what was going on until the last second. Jiwoo had tried to protest, but it was no use, Sooyoung squeezed her hand - not hard, just enough to tell her that she was handling this - and Jiwoo went quiet when it was accompanied by a sweet smile.

Mistress yells at Sooyoung for a straight hour. Jiwoo feels bad for eavesdropping, but she had to know. Sooyoung got library maintenance duty for three months - one for each girl that snuck out - and Jiwoo and Chaewon got nothing but a warning. Everyone tried to steer clear from the library, it was a strange place. Vivi swore the bookcases moved, trapping her in and confusing her like a maze. Heejin, a huge arachnophobe, said there were far too many spiders in there for her. The normally outgoing and unbelieving Jungeun refuses to step foot in the library and won't talk about what made her so fearful of the place.

When Sooyoung comes back to their room later that night, she seems somewhat distracted. Chaewon had stepped out some twenty minutes ago to sneak a snack from the kitchen. Odd that it's taking her so long. Hyejoo wasn't in the room when Jiwoo had raced back earlier so she wasn't sure where she went.

Jiwoo wanted to tell Sooyoung about seeing Hyejoo on the balcony, but when she walked into the room with her knuckles bleeding and small sniffles escaping her, Jiwoo forgot all about it. She stayed quiet while she wrapped Sooyoung's hands in bandages and wiped the tears from her face. When she had finished drying Sooyoung's face, she leaned down and pecked each of her cheeks, if only to see her smile.

_"I know you name means eternal water, but I don't like seeing you cry."_

_"Well, I wasn't gonna let her do this to you."_

Jiwoo sighs, a pained smile making its way to her face. She wishes Sooyoung wouldn't insist on going through these things alone. Her punishment would've been less if she had been willing to share it with her and Chaewon. Jiwoo holds Sooyoung's hands gently, brings them closer to kiss the bandages.

Jiwoo swears she sees Sooyoung's cheeks tint just a little darker. More of the peachy color Jiwoo loves so much, but it only darkens, almost to Sooyoung's favorite shade of burgundy as Jiwoo leans closer. She was so desperately to feel the soft press of Sooyoung's lips on her own. She's waited so long for this. The anticipation builds up as she gets closer, but stops abruptly - only a few inches from Sooyoung's beautiful face - when she hears the door creak slightly.

Jiwoo thinks it might be Chaewon, finally coming back with their snacks, but when she looks she sees Hyejoo. She's peering into the door through a small crack, Jiwoo can only see one of her eyes, and she sees it widen when they notice each other, pulling the door shut so quickly it takes the air from the room with it.

The moment is ruined and Jiwoo has missed another chance to taste the sweet forbidden fruit of Sooyoung's lips. Jiwoo's heart pounds in her chest as she drops Sooyoung's hands like she was burned. She staggers back away from Sooyoung and races out the door, nearly knocking Hyejoo down in her haste.

She runs to the only secluded part of the school she can think of; the library. She couldn't imagine anyone being there right now, the day is slowly winding down into night and most of the girls would be getting ready for bed now. Brushes in their hair, the tang of mint on their teeth.

She races past the nonfiction and refernece sections. The fantasy section is located near the back of the library and it's almost impossible to find if you don't know where you're going. Jiwoo doesn't advertise it, but she spends a lot of time in the library, the other girls tend to fear it for some reason and she doesn't want to give them a reason to ostracize her.

When she reaches the fantasy section however, she sees something so showstoppingly peculiar, she's frozen. Minji, Siyeon, Bora, Handong, Yoohyeon, Yoobin, and Gahyeon are sitting on the floor in a semi circle, draped in dark dresses and a piece of lacy fabric over their faces. Chaewon lays on the ground in front of them surrounded by a multitude of lit candles. Hyejoo is standing behind the girls, watching silently with a strange fire in her eyes. Jiwoo can't move, eyes glued to the floor around Chaewon as it glows a bright blue.

She ducks behind a bookcase and watches. Minji rises to her knees with her arms spread in front of her, palms up. The rest of the girls close their eyes as she recites something aloud in a language unfamiliar to Jiwoo. A book wrapped in chains, bound in leather, rests at Minji's knees and it starts to glow brighter the further into the incantation Minji gets. The other girls pick it up and recite the words in perfect unison with Minji. Chaewon gasps out a strangled breathe and Jiwoo tries to race forward and help her, but she's rooted to the floor.

There's a burst of light. She's blinded for a second. When her vision returns, she sees Chaewon sitting up, the candles are blown out, the girls have removed the lace mask, and Hyejoo is no longer behind them. Jiwoo runs to her, wrapping her up in a tight hug and glaring at the other girls as she barks out questions, demanding answers.

"What did you do to her? What did you do to Chaewon?"

"Everything's fine Jiwoo, don't worry. It's just something we read in a book." Minji assures, voice calm as she explains to Jiwoo. "Chaewon asked us for this and it's nothing dangerous."

"Nothing dangerous! Is that the book you learned this from?" She asks, pointing to the one resting in front of Minji, "It's chained up! How is that not dangerous?"

The rest of the girls look to Minji, hoping she'll calm Jiwoo down and talk her out of inevitably going to the Mistress. If she can't, it's silently agreed upon between the girls that they'll do anything to protect their secret. They just hope it doesn't come to that, they're all too well acquainted with the spirits that linger here and they do not wish to add another sorry soul to the list.

"Jiwoo-yah, everything is okay," Chaewon smiles happily. Jiwoo's eyebrows pull together in confusion, she could swear Chaewon's eyes were blue for a second, but she blinks and they are brown. "I talked to Minji about this and nothing bad happened."

"But where's Hyejoo? I saw her before the light, but then she was gone."

"Hyejoo?" Siyeon exclaims, her eyes wide, "You can see-"

She's cut off by Minji's icy glare and Handong's hand gripping her shoulder tightly. Chaewon pulls Jiwoo to her feet slowly and wraps an arm around her waist as she leads her out and back to their room. The day has been too much for her to handle between Sooyoung taking their punishment and the weird events in the library. Jiwoo is wiped out, so tired all of the sudden that she's stumbling the short distance to her bed. Chaewon lays her down and brushes her hair out of her face after pulling the blankets over her small form. Chaewon smiles and bends down to press a sweet and short kiss to Jiwoo's lips before she's out like a light.

When she wakes she's wrapped in two sets of warm arms. Sooyoung is pressed to her back, arm tight around her waist. Chaewon sleeps soundly in front of her, hand resting on Jiwoo's cheek even in her sleep. They burn, coiling tightly around her like a snake, pressing so close together Jiwoo can hear their breathing, hear their heartbeats. Jiwoo allows a small thoughtless smile and buries herself in the covers with the girls. This is all Jiwoo has ever wanted, to be so close to them that she can't tell where they stop and she begins.

There's a weird presence in the room. It's cold and unwelcome and threatening. Jiwoo has her eyes shut, buried in Chaewon's long hair and her warm neck, but Jiwoo can tell it's looking at her, like this presence knows she's awake. Jiwoo fears opening her eyes and seeing something she doesn't want to. She had almost forgot about yesterday, but know that she's so unsettled, it comes back in waves. She wishes she could say this feels like creepy aftershocks of that, but it feels completely different.

It feels like she's drifting through the past, like she isn't really in their room, wrapped around the girls the way she knows she is. Her eyes are shut, but she sees a shining smile and long legs in a yellow plaid school uniform. She smells roses and water, she smells the grass and the forest. She tastes so many different things; strawberries and apples and pineapple with the most prominent flavor being something she's never tasted before, yet somehow she knows it's a blood plum. She can hear birds chirping and frogs croaking and screaming; horrid, terrifying screaming. Suddenly the warm and pleasant images of the forest she's adopted as her own vanishes and she can feel nothing but the cold of the concrete beneath her, blood on her palms so hot it's scorching. She's feels claustrophobic, like she's locked up somewhere, crouched down so small she can't breathe.

Her eyes snap open and all her breath leaves her in a rush. She turns to look around, searching for the source of the presence but can only see the floor length mirror in front of her. Hyejoo's reflection is displayed in it, her face was like when she was on the balcony when they all ran to the forest without her. She narrows her eyes at Jiwoo when they make eye contact and Hyejoo in the mirror stands from the chair she was sitting in and starts to walk to what Jiwoo figures was the door for an escape, but when Jiwoo looks around the room, Hyejoo is not there.

She gets up in a rush, ripping herself from the comforting embraces of Chaewon and Sooyoung. Jiwoo climbs the ladder of her bunk, hoping to see Hyejoo fast asleep in her bed. She's met with a perfectly made bed and when she touches the sheets, they are cold. Like no one has slept there in days. Months. Years.

Jiwoo stumbles down the ladder, her foot catching on a rung on her way down. She hears something crack and she prays her ankle isn't broke as she falls onto the rough carpet of their room floor. Her elbows break her fall and they burn like Hell as her scream wakes Chaewon and Sooyoung. She reaches with shaking hands for her shattered ankle. She can just tell it's broken, the kind of broken where you can see bone, the kind where it feels like you'll never walk again.

Chaewon falls out of the bed in panic and Sooyoung shoots up so quickly, so used to sleeping on the top bunk, that she hits her head on Hyejoo's bed above her. Jiwoo is too busy crying and trying not to scream that she misses all of that. Misses all the stuff that would usually tug a smile from her, pull a laugh.

Jiwoo's hearing filters out, all she can hear is her harsh breathing and the sound her tears make when they hit the carpet. Sooyoung and Chaewon's voices above her asking her what's wrong and arguing over if they should move her or not can't be heard. Her breathing quickens as both hands grip her leg above her broken ankle.

Jiwoo must've blacked out from the pain because when she wakes, she's on the bedroom floor of someone else's room. She blinks the harsh overhead light out of her eyes as she focuses on the three figures leaning over her, their hair cascading down in curtains above her. Sooyoung, Chaewon, and surprisingly Yoohyeon are looking down at her in worry.

The pain in her ankle is gone and in its absence, confusion settles in. She pushes herself to sit up and feels Chaewon's hand on her back to steady her, Sooyoung clutching her hand tightly. Yoohyeon smiles and closes and locks the chained book she saw in the library the day before, she lowers the hood of the cloak she's wearing. A quick glance around shows Minji lounging on her bed, reading a book of her own.

"Your ankle is all better. What happened? The girls said they were asleep when it happened." Yoohyeon wonders as she tucks the book into a drawer in the shared dresser. Jiwoo's brows furrow. She isn't sure how to explain what exactly happened.

"I...felt weird. I woke up and I saw Hyejoo in the mirror, but it was pretty early so I was confused. I went to check if she was in bed, if I had imagined it, but I fell climbing down." Jiwoo scratches the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"The mirror?" Yoohyeon asks in confusion, head tilted to the side. Minji clears her throat from her bed, eyes not leaving her book as Yoohyeon gets her message. Jiwoo gets angry. They always change the subject when she talks about Hyejoo, they did it last night with Chaewon in the library as well.

Before she can lash out in anger and ask, Chaewon and Sooyoung usher her from the room on her recently mended ankle. Which is another curious case, she can walk now, as if she hadn't broken her ankle so badly to the point of white bone breaking through soft skin earlier. Jiwoo doesn't understand why she woke up in Yoohyeon's room instead of the infirmary.

"Let's go visit Chuu." Sooyoung smiles, so bright that it makes Jiwoo forget about her anger, if only momentarily. The thought of the warm sun shining down on her while she lays on the grass is so freeing that suddenly, Jiwoo can't be bothered with wondering how her ankle was fixed all of the sudden.

When they get outside, Jiwoo is the one who grabs Sooyoung and Chaewon's wrists and she runs. The wind whips her hair out behind her and she can smell nature all around her. Jiwoo steps in some mud, absolutely ruining her white socks, but she doesn't care. She has more important things on her mind; visiting the lake, kissing Sooyoung finally, kissing Chaewon ( _again_ ).

She lets go of their hands when Chuu is right in front of them, they're at the opening of the clearing, far enough away that fox on the other side has yet to notice them and flee in fear. Jiwoo feels like she's lost her mind as she comes to a complete stop with an exaggerated breath. She lets out a happy laugh, hands on her knees as it becomes harder to breathe from laughing. Above her bent over form, Sooyoung and Chaewon share a confused look.

They understand what's going on with Jiwoo when she straightens up and halts for only a second before she breaks into a sprint - the fox's head snapping up to assess the situation - and jumps, fully clothed, into the lake. She resurfaces with a laugh, allowing herself to lay back, as she gently floats in the water. She kicks her feet, swimming with her smile to the sky.

"Jiwoo honey, what're you doing?" Chaewon calls, pulling off her socks to stand in the shallow part of the lake. Jiwoo chuckles, sinking back under the water to swim up to Chaewon who leans closer to see her. She pops her head up, treading water with a bright smile as she brushes her hair back, clears water from her eyes.

"I'm swimming." She chuckles.

"Babe, you're fully clothed." Sooyoung laughs, stepping closer but not getting as close as Chaewon.

For good reason too because Jiwoo laughs and then pulls Chaewon into the lake, fully clothed as well. Chaewon surfaces with a deep breath, clinging to Jiwoo in panic. Sooyoung can't bring herself to do anything but laugh in Chaewon's confusion. She sits on a log not too far from the water so she can watch them swim around together until Jiwoo calls for her. Sooyoung waves at her but refuses to get closer.

"I won't have you pulling me in while I'm still in my clothes like you did Chaewon." Sooyoung shakes her head, flipping her hair off her shoulder. Jiwoo's cheeks go red.

"Then take them off." Sooyoung's eyes widen in shock and Chaewon makes a cute little confused noise. It takes Chaewon and Jiwoo all of two seconds to realize Sooyoung has paused to really consider it. They share a look that's equally surprised and interested before they look back at Sooyoung.

Sooyoung has stopped contemplating to take off her white socks, laying them on the log next to her. She sends each of them a mischievous smile as she reaches behind her to unzip her red skirt. Chaewon covers her eyes with her hand, only to peek out between her fingers. Jiwoo watches with curious wonder, arms wrapped around Chaewon tightly from behind as they wade in the water - their thick skirts weighing them down a bit.

Sooyoung pushes her skirt down and all Chaewon and Jiwoo can see is the milky skin of her thighs as her white dress shirt covers what Jiwoo really wishes she could see. Jiwoo's breath hitches at the same time Chaewon's speeds up when Sooyoung actually starts to unbutton her shirt. When she unbuttons the last button, she lets it hang on her shoulder for a few baited seconds before she shrugs it off and Sooyoung is standing there in just her underwear.

They're white. Silk. They look as soft as Sooyoung's thighs, Jiwoo wishes she could touch them. Chaewon spares a glance back to Jiwoo as Sooyoung rises from the log, walking their way like something from a movie. She glides her way through the water like something Jiwoo's never seen before. Her hair mats together the further into the lake she gets and before Jiwoo or Chaewon can get a good look at her, Sooyoung is up to her neck in the water. Chaewon and Jiwoo separate in anticipation.

"Are you satisfied now?" Sooyoung asks with a cocky smirk on her face, wading in the water so close to the two that they can feel her breath on them. Jiwoo can only jerkily nod her head.

"How's it feel in Chuu? Refreshing?" Chaewon asks with a smile and a laugh, having recovered quicker than Jiwoo, her brain working at half of its normal pace.

"I'm not sure, I'm not in Jiwoo yet." Sooyoung laughs, loud and happy. Tempting. She reaches for Jiwoo's waist under the water as Chaewon and Jiwoo are shocked into silence once again. Sooyoung lets the silence linger for a second before she kisses Jiwoo's cheek with a laugh. Chaewon, for as shocked as she is, can't help but smile at the two. They're cute like this.

"I don't get one?" Chaewon finds the courage to ask. Sooyoung laughs freely and swims closer to Chaewon to wrap her arms around her shoulders, holding her close as they wade together. Jiwoo can't say she doesn't miss the feeling of Jiwoo's arm around her waist, but she isn't jealous, oddly enough. It feels just as right, seeing her with Chaewon like this.

Sooyoung lets the smile fall from her face, becoming serious as Chaewon's cheeks color. Chaewon's hands find their way from Sooyoung's lower back to the sides of her hips, squeezing just slightly. Sooyoung's foot catches Chaewon's own for a second before Sooyoung leans in. It brushes the back of her calf and she kisses Chaewon's cheek briefly before finally finding her way to Chaewon's lips and kissing her sweetly. Jiwoo isn't sure who she'd rather be in this situation.

Time slows for the three of them. Sooyoung takes her time tasting all that Chaewon's lips have to offer. Even though Jiwoo can't see it clearly through the blurry filter the water provides, she can tell that hands wander. One of Sooyoung's finds purchase in the wet mess of Chaewon's hair and Jiwoo thinks she should feel like she's intruding, but she doesn't. Even though she isn't kissing either of them, she feels included, like she's as much a part of this as they are.

When they pull apart, Sooyoung's lips are as kiss bitten red as she's always predicted. Sooyoung places a short parting peck on Chaewon's lips, then lets her go. She swims over to Jiwoo, only her head above water, like a puppy first learning how to swim. She wraps her arms around her like she did before, tightly around her waist. She smiles at her, forehead resting on Jiwoo's as she whispers words only for Jiwoo's ears. Words Jiwoo never thought Sooyoung would've said to her.

"I've waited far too long for this." She whispers, words curling around in Jiwoo's head, making her dizzy.

Sooyoung brings one hand from around Jiwoo's waist and rests it on her cheek. Her thumb gently rubs her cheek before she pulls her head back and tucks a piece of hair behind Jiwoo's ear. Jiwoo's skin buzzes, she can feel everything around her; Sooyoung's touches, Chaewon watching not that far away, the animals wandering around the lake (namely that same fox from earlier) and Jiwoo is confused as to how everything suddenly comes together, falls into place, when Sooyoung is this close to her.

When Sooyoung kisses her, Jiwoo comes alive. All the hair on the back of her neck stands on end, her fingertips tingle, her lips burn. It's different from how she kissed Chaewon, not bad, just different. There was a certain hunger to the way she kissed Chaewon, a passionate union of two, but with Jiwoo it's calming and reassuring, like there has been this longing, this yearning, and it wasn't just one sided.

Jiwoo dares to drop her hand only a bit lower, resting just on the curve of Sooyoung's hip and she can feel the silk of Sooyoung's underwear. The thought thrills her, but it scares her more. For as much as she's wanted this, for as long as she's wanted it, now that it's here, it's a little frightening. She isn't sure where her hands should rest, if they're placed correctly, if she's kissing Sooyoung back with just as much feeling as she's kissing Jiwoo.

They pull back a lot quicker than they both want to. There are sticks snapping, twigs breaking, leaves rustling around them and it pops the bubble around the three of them. Chaewon swims closer, an arm around each of their waists as they wait to see who's happened upon their lake. The fox is long gone when Jiwoo spares a look behind her to find it, she wonders if the idea of another person is what spooked it.

When she looks back to the mouth of the clearing, she sees Hyejoo, staring at the three of them. She's out of breath, like she ran there, her white socks are stained green all the way to the knee like she fell as she was running, her hair matted to her head and tangled, her white shirt is torn on her left forearm and stained red, Jiwoo realizes this means she must've gotten cut on something. Jiwoo opens her mouth to call out to her, ask her what's wrong and if she's okay, but Hyejoo's eyes widen and she drops something as she runs away.

Chaewon starts to swim to the edge of the lake, but Sooyoung stops her short, grabbing the back of her white dress shirt and pulling Chaewon to her chest to hold close. Chaewon makes a confused noise, but quiets when Sooyoung quickly puts a hand over her mouth to silence her. Chaewon looks back to the clearing and sees four men, dressed in black head to toe (a hood, a mask, the whole nine yards), are stomping their way into the clearing, ruining all the beautiful flowers Chaewon had sprouted.

Jiwoo clings tighter to Sooyoung in fear, although the men don't seem to even notice them. One of them bends down, picks up what Hyejoo dropped, and straightens again. He lowers the mask covering his nose and mouth and brings the dropped item, a trimmed rose, to his nose to smell. He recoils, like the scent of a rose was bad, and brings the mask back to cover his face once more. He crushes the rose in his hand, petals falling like rain to the forest floor. The other three men follow him as he points in the direction, they pick up their pace, running after her.

Chaewon wrestles herself from Sooyoung's grasp and swims frantically to land, launching herself after the men and Hyejoo. Jiwoo sends a panicked look to Sooyoung before following after her. When Sooyoung and Jiwoo catch up to Chaewon, she's sitting on the ground on her knees. There's a field of purple pansies around her, but no Hyejoo and no weird men in black. Jiwoo kneels beside her in confusion.

"Did you see which way they went?" Jiwoo asks calmly, a hand on Chaewon's shoulder. Chaewon nods in affirmation. "Which way?" Chaewon's shoulders sink before she answers.

"They ran this way. I followed them out of the clearing and all the way here, but when I rounded a tree they weren't here. For a second I thought I saw a woman, in a red dress, but I blinked and she was gone." Chaewon sighs. Jiwoo's brows gather in confusion. A woman in red? But Hyejoo was wearing her green skirt when they saw her in the clearing.

"Look, let's look for a little while more and if we don't find her we go back? It's getting late and your clothes are all wet." Sooyoung says, resting a hand on Chaewon's head, petting gently. Chaewon nods sadly, standing up with the help of Sooyoung and Jiwoo.

They search for twenty more minutes, they search until the sun has gone down and Jiwoo is shivering, the cold settling into her trembling skin and wet clothes. Sooyoung changes when they make their way back to the lake, undressing completely before pulling her skirt and white shirt on in place of her wet underwear. They walk hand in hand back to the school, sneaking in through the open window leading to Jinsoul, Jungeun, and Yerim's room. To say they freaked Yerim out was an understatement, she nearly screamed if it weren't for Jungeun bringing a finger to her lips to quiet her.

They leave quickly, with a bow of thanks to Jungeun (and a wink from Sooyoung), as they run through the halls to their room. They enter quietly, sadly, Chaewon was still torn up about not being able to find Hyejoo or catch the men. Sooyoung gathers the clothes from the girls and places it in the laundry basket. Jiwoo climbs the ladder to Hyejoo's bunk and nearly falls again when she sees Hyejoo in her bunk, reading a book she borrowed from the library. The gasp of shock she lets out is enough to alert the other girls who crowd around her bunk.

Hyejoo looks confused as all three girls, including Sooyoung who's never really liked her much, are looking at her in concern. She's still in the clothes she was wearing earlier, her white button down and her green skirt, knee high white socks falling down a bit. Jiwoo grabs her left arm, looking for the cut and the blood she saw earlier, but is perplexed when she doesn't find it. Her hair is as silky as it was this morning, showing no signs of distress, as if Hyejoo's hair hasn't touched anything but the air and her back all day.

"I don't understand...we saw you in the woods..." Jiwoo mumbles out, confusion taking her over. At this statement, Hyejoo dawns a look of confusion herself.

"The woods? I haven't gone out there in ages. It probably wasn't me you saw." Hyejoo laughs, laying her book down beside her to look at the girls. "Why are you guys all wet?"

"We were in Chuu and we saw you. You ran away and then these guys chased after you. You arm was cut." Chaewon says curiously, picking up her arm to inspect it the same way Jiwoo did.

"Chuu?"

"The lake, Sooyoung named it, it's not important. What's important is that you were out there, roughed up and scared and now you're here and you look fine. What is going on?" Chaewon groans in confusion and agitation.

"I'm just as confused as you all are, I have no idea what you're talking about." Hyejoo laughs. Hyejoo ushers for them to back up so she can climb down and stand on equal footing with them. She spreads her arms out to her sides, allowing them to take a look. "I'm fine guys." She laughs.

Sooyoung stands a ways back from the other girls, watching the scene curiously. Her arms are crossed over her chest, eyes searching Hyejoo for something, anything. She doesn't understand how all three of them could see a disheveled Hyejoo running for her life in the woods earlier, but just as they arrive back at the dorm she is laying in bed, dressed like nothing ever happened to her. She diverts her eyes from the sight of Chaewon and Jiwoo fretting over Hyejoo. Her eyes catch the floor length mirror, everything is almost normal. Chaewon and Jiwoo look the way they should but Hyejoo looks the way she did in the woods. Perfect hair that's lost it's shine, blood staining her shirt, a tear in the fabric, green accents on her once pristine white socks.

"The mirror." Sooyoung says, making all three girls look at her. Chaewon and Jiwoo look puzzled as Sooyoung moves out of the way for them to peer into the mirror and see what she does, but when she looks back at the mirror, Hyejoo is fine.

"What about the mirror?" Jiwoo asks, hand on Hyejoo's upper arm. Sooyoung shakes her head, muttering nothing under her breath as she climbs the ladder to rest in her bed for the night. The other three follow her lead, like they usually do.

In the morning, everything feels fine again. The odd feelings swirling in Jiwoo's stomach and the confusion over what happened in the woods the day prior seem to have filtered themselves out of her system. Of course she'd like to understand what happened yesterday, there are too many strange things going on at once to ignore them all, but she's just happy she can wake up in bed wrapped around Hyejoo and know that she's fine, that she isn't hurt.

She yawns and hums quietly, turning her body more to face Hyejoo, wrap her arms around her. It takes a few seconds to register but once she feels something sticky and warm on her hand, she screams, snapping her eyes open. All the feelings of panic and worry from the woods double their terrible reign over her as she looks to Hyejoo. She lays unmoving, black hair fanned around her head, her eyes wide and staring at the ceiling, her skin is eerily pale and when Jiwoo sees the blood - sees the blade stuck in Hyejoo's stomach - she screams again.

Jiwoo cries in utter panic, confusion, and hurt. She takes the hand Hyejoo isn't holding around the blade's handle and cradles it in her own, sobbing in earnest. Her hands shake as she reaches out to touch Hyejoo's shoulder and jostle her, like it might wake her up, as if Hyejoo was just sleeping. Hyejoo doesn't wake, as expected. The blood from her wound is smeared all over her, staining her white shirt, ruining her green skirt, yet somehow the bed is in perfect condition. The pristine white sheets below the two of them are not even tinted a shade of pink.

In the midst of her freak out, she realizes that neither Chaewon or Sooyoung have come to see why she was screaming. She wants to get up, to yell at them to wake up and help her, but she can't move. She can't believe that Hyejoo is dead - how did someone even do this to her while Jiwoo slept like a baby beside her - how had Jiwoo let this happen?

She sobs, eyes clenched shut as she leans down a bit, connecting her forehead to Hyejoo's hand. Jiwoo's tears fall on cold white skin, something akin to snow, and she nearly drops Hyejoo's hand when she feels just how cold she is. Like she's been this way for a while, all the comforting warmth Jiwoo fell asleep to last night bled out of her.

Jiwoo cries for what feels like hours until the atmosphere around her changes; it's stale and like the vibrant colors of the room are now somehow dulled. Jiwoo sets Hyejoo's hand down and brings her own up to wipe her eyes, she keeps them shut until she's on the floor, she doesn't want to look back up and see Hyejoo dead. She can't see Hyejoo like that.

She kneels by Chaewon's bed, watching her and Sooyoung sleep for a few minutes while she cries silently. When she has given herself enough time to calm down, she reaches for Sooyoung's shoulder and shakes her - like she did Hyejoo to try and wake her. Sooyoung rolls over, rubs her eyes, opens them sleepily to smile at Jiwoo until she sees the remnants of dried tears. She sits up immediately, careful of the bunk above her this time, to slide out and kneel beside her.

"What's wrong?" Sooyoung asks quietly, mindful of Chaewon sleeping behind them. She wipes Jiwoo's cheeks, pulling her closer until eventually Sooyoung sits down properly and pulls Jiwoo into her lap to hold her as close as she can.

"Y-you didn't- you didn't hear me screaming?" Jiwoo asks in confusion. She was loud - loud enough to wake Haseul who sleeps like the dead four doors down - and yet neither Sooyoung or Chaewon heard her? Sooyoung is such a light sleeper too.

"Screaming? What're you talking about, babe?" Sooyoung's eyebrows crease and she smooths Jiwoo's hair away from her face.

"H-Hyejoo. Hyejoo, she's-" Jiwoo cuts herself off with more crying. Sooyoung glances up to Hyejoo's bed, but sees nothing out of the ordinary. One of her arms is hanging over the railing of the bed, but that's normal, more often than not Hyejoo is found with an arm or a leg sticking out after a night filled with tossing and turning.

"What's wrong with Hyejoo?" Sooyoung encourages.

"She's- she's dead," Jiwoo sobs, "I- there's something in her stomach and she was covered in blood." Jiwoo says, opening her eyes to look up at Sooyoung, lay out her palms for Sooyoung to see the blood on them.

Sooyoung grabs Jiwoo's hands gently with a look of confusion on her face. She turns them over to see the tops of her shaking hands and then folds them back over to look at her palms, examining nothing but the soft white of Jiwoo's palms. Jiwoo yanks her hands from Sooyoung's, snatching them back to examine them herself, frowning deeply when she sees no blood.

Sooyoung lifts Jiwoo by her hips, setting her down on the ground as she stands to climb the ladder to Hyejoo's bed. Before she's even all the way up, she can tell that Hyejoo isn't in bed. Its mitered corners just as tightly tucked as they are when Hyejoo leaves the room for the day. Sooyoung frowns, mirroring Jiwoo's own look, as she reaches her hand out across the bed, smoothing the sheets.

"Jiwoo, Hyejoo isn't in bed." Sooyoung says gently, like Jiwoo may break with any of the words (and she isn't too crazy to think Jiwoo might. She saw how she reacted to her ankle being fixed). Jiwoo's head snaps up at the information, Sooyoung nearly ducking out of her way, as she jumps up to confirm that Hyejoo isn't in bed.

When she sees the empty sheets, her knees grow weak. She had felt Hyejoo's blood on her hands, had seen the blade sticking out of her as her skin paled. She could see and touch it, and yet somehow Hyejoo is suddenly not in bed? Nothing is making sense anymore. Between what happened in the woods and what the other girls were doing to Chaewon that day in the library, Jiwoo really thinks she's lost it.

She rushes out of the room, stomping her way into the room Minji shares with Siyeon, Yoohyeon, and Handong. Unsurprisingly, Gahyeon, Bora, and Yoobin are in the room as well. The seven of them travel in a pack most of the time, sticking together behind Minji unless absolutely necessary. They stare up at her in question, she's frozen.

Jiwoo doesn't even know what she wants to say to them. She has so many questions that still need answers; what really happened to Chaewon in the library, why do they avoid speaking about Hyejoo, what happened in the woods, who are they really? Jiwoo knows something weird is going on. She isn't sure if it's their fault or if she's just going crazy, but something is wrong. She feels it in her bones, like something is crushing her, a weight so heavy on her chest. 

"Before Minji shuts one of you up, I want answers." Jiwoo states, looking pointedly at every girl except Minji. Jiwoo knows she isn't exactly the most frightening person out there, that she isn't really intimidating, but she needs to know. At this point, her sanity is on the line.

"What do you want to know?" Gahyeon lets out in a rush, like she was trying to hold it back. Minji mumbles something vaguely threatening to her, but Gahyeon brushes her off, "No. I'm done hiding it from her, it's not right." 

Jiwoo looks back and forth from Minji to Gahyeon as they stare at each other. The rest of the girls mirroring her expression of confusion. Minji and Gahyeon go at it, rambling things off to each other in a fight, words much too fast for Jiwoo to pick up. It doesn't even sound like Korean, but the speed at which they're talking would surely disorient anyone. Chaewon and Sooyoung enter the room out of breath, having ran after Jiwoo. They observe the scene with panicked breath, Chaewon draping herself around Jiwoo's waist, Sooyoung grabbing her hand.

"That's it. Jiwoo, come with me. I'm done with this." Gahyeon stands, ignoring Minji's threats. She grabs Jiwoo's hand, pulling her from Sooyoung and Chaewon's grasps. The remaining eight girls follow, baited breath trapped in their throats as they wait for either the results they were searching for or for their secrets to be spilled.

"You're probably not gonna believe me - which is fine, I understand - but this school has a lot of secrets. Most of the rumors you've heard are probably true; the ghosts in the library, the woman in the woods, the founding father, all true," Gahyeon starts, looking over at Jiwoo's cute surprised face. "Don't tell me you haven't heard of them!" 

Jiwoo looks back to Chaewon and Sooyoung, all three shaking their heads.

"Well, the ghosts in the library aren't all that creepy or scary. They're just old students or teachers that died and didn't have anywhere else to go other than back to the school," Handong starts, figuring that if Minji's let it get this far, she's safe to let things out, "Sometimes, when you pass, you don't... make it to the other side. You get trapped and you don't have many places to go. Most people return to the place they spent most of their life, somewhere familiar. That's what this school was to them."

"The woman in the woods, does she wear a red dress?" Chaewon asks once Handong has finished.

"How'd you know?" Bora asks, not giving Chaewon a second to answer before she launches into her explanation, "She's one of the people who died and couldn't find their way over. Her name is Jiho, we haven't gotten much else out of her. I'm kind of getting her to open up though." 

"Yeah because she has a crush on you." Yoobin laughs. Bora shushes her and gently smacks her arm, Minji rolling her eyes at her girls' antics.

"Founding father?" Sooyoung questions, hand holding Chaewon's as they walk.

"Ah, the founding father," Yoohyeon laughs, "Jo Donghyuk. I like him, he's very sweet. To me at least, Yoobin begs to differ-" 

"He gives me dirty looks when I walk by his mirror!"

"You're just loud and annoying, you sneak into his office to practice and mess everything up, you know he's kind of a neat freak," Yoohyeon shrugs, "You guys'll see him on our way to the basement. There's a few abandoned and miscellaneous mirrors scattered around his office and the basement even. Some girls from the first graduating class got angry with him and trapped him in the mirrors."

"Trapped him in the mirrors? The hell does that mean?" Sooyoung frowns, confusion covering her features.

"It's a lot to get into right now so I won't really, but there's basically like another dimension on the other side of a mirror. Usually it parrots you, does what you do, but there are some cases where - if things in the other dimension are slightly off kilter to this one - you can see the inconsistencies," Siyeon begins to explain, "The girls trapped him in the mirror so we can only see him in the mirrors over here, but on the other side of the mirror - in the other dimension - he isn't there. The girls trapped him in somewhat of a limbo in the mirror. So he can view two different realities at once."

Sooyoung thinks this makes a little bit of sense, considering the odd differences she saw in the mirrors with Hyejoo. She has a thought.

"Does that mean Hyejoo is trapped in the mirrors too? Because yesterday she looked different in the mirror than she did in real life for a second."

"Ah that's..." Yoobin trails off, trying to collect words that make sense to the others, "Not really."

They all file down a short flight of stairs to come face to face with an old, dilapidated wooden door. Gahyeon is still holding Jiwoo's hand the grip tightens just a second - just a squeeze - before she breathes out heavily. Gahyeon doesn't like having to do this, but she can't stand seeing Jiwoo look at Hyejoo with these lost puppy dogs eyes any longer without knowing the truth.

"Listen Jiwoo," She turns to face her, grabbing Jiwoo's other hand to hold as well, "You're not going to like what's in there and it's gonna be hard for you to look at, but you need to see this. I can't stand keeping the secret from you anymore.

The rest of the girls, sans Chaewon and Sooyoung, all look a little guilty - to their credit. No one liked keeping the secret of Hyejoo, but they felt it was necessary. Jiwoo was going to find out eventually, but they almost wanted her to do it on her own. They didn't take into account the fact that she would demand answers instead of searching for them on her own. It makes sense though, Jiwoo never liked to do anything alone, and they knew that.

That's why it makes unlocking the door and pushing it open for Jiwoo even harder. Gahyeon unfortunately has a front row seat to the heartbreak she knows Jiwoo is going to go through. She already knows how this is going to end.

Jiwoo enters first, letting go of Gahyeon's hand and pushes the door out of her way only to be met with wonder. The room, even though it's in the basement, has a skylight. They must be under the ground a little ways off from the school because Jiwoo can see the perfect blue sky above them. Somehow, there's flourishing greenery all around her; vines that climb the walls, flowers that sprout from concrete. Jiwoo doesn't have the mind to question it now, chalking it up to the magic Minji and the others have been using.

Then she sees Hyejoo.

Her beautiful, wonderful Hyejoo.

There's a break in the flora as the room comes to the center. Jiwoo takes small, confused steps as she gets closer to the skeleton laid out in front of her. She's scared, she's never seen a skeleton before in real life and she isn't sure what all of this has to do with Hyejoo in the slightest. The skeleton has a tight grip around something sticking from between the bones of its rib cage.

Upon closer inspection, Jiwoo finds a dagger.

She looks up to the skylight as she kneels beside the skeleton. Light streams down on them and Jiwoo is reminded of Snow White for a moment. A crown of flowers by its head, arms holding the dagger just as Snow rested them on her stomach. Jiwoo reaches a hand out, flinches back, reaches it out again to touch the skeleton's shoulder.

Then she sees the mirror on the far wall of the room beyond the skeleton. It's large, floor length. She stands and walks around the skeleton to get a closer look at the mirror and what exactly is reflected in it. Through it she can see Chaewon and Sooyoung standing in the door way, but not entering the room, the other girls behind them. She sees the wild plants around her, yet they are all dead. Leaves falling off decaying vines, petals withering away to nothing, bushes baron of anything but twigs. 

She sees Hyejoo at the center of it all.

Lying there, a dagger in her abdomen. She looks peaceful, like she might be asleep if not for the intrusion in her stomach. Her dark hair fans out around her, white shirt only stained by her own blood. She sees the way her shirt is half untucked, half unbuttoned, the way one white sock has fallen and has revealed scabs and bruises and cuts. 

She glances back behind her, hoping for a second her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she finds the skeleton just as it was. She looks back to the mirror and still sees Hyejoo with that crown of dead flowers.

"W-what's going on?" Jiwoo asks as she makes her way back over to the skeleton. Minji makes her way through the crowd to stand on the other side of the skeleton, blocking Jiwoo's view of the door.

"Like Jiho and Donghyuk, we saw her around before you or the other girls. There was something about her that was different from Jiho or Donghyuk though, that we couldn't place at the time of meeting her. We later came to realize it was how she died that was different. Unlike Donghyuk, who technically never died, or the other ghosts here who died later in life, most from old age or illness, Hyejoo was murdered. She didn't see it coming, she didn't know it was going to happen so soon.

"It's hard to find out what happened to someone when they don't know themselves. There are way, though, as Yoobin figured out. Yoobin was the one to find where Hyejoo's body was and then the mirror. The mirror, the sole witness to the crime, told us a lot. Yoobin rewound it, almost like a video, and from there we figured out what happened. We still don't understand it, there are a lot of holes in the story, but there were four men, all-"

"All in black? Masks?" Sooyoung asks as she steps into the room. Minji turns to look at her and nods with a puzzled look. "We saw them in the woods yesterday. We were in the lake and we saw Hyejoo on the shore. She ran off and a few seconds later four men walked by to find her. Chaewon ran after them, but she didn't see Hyejoo or the men."

"They were the ones that did this to her," Minji continues as she turns back to face Jiwoo. "When- when we first saw you talking to Hyejoo, we weren't sure what to do. We couldn't decide on if we should tell you or not. We didn't want to break your heart, but it was inevitable and we should've told you sooner. Told you before-"

_Told you before you loved her._

"We're sorry." Minji finishes after cutting herself off. She turns to leave, but pauses. She wants to say more, but she isn't sure what would comfort Jiwoo in the way she needs. She realizes as she brushes past Chaewon gently that she needs Chaewon and Sooyoung. That is the comfort Jiwoo needs. She rounds the other girls up and they leave the three others alone to gather their thoughts.

Chaewon takes gentle steps into the room, pulling Sooyoung down to kneel with her in the space previously occupied by Minji. Jiwoo trembles on the other side of her skeleton. Her eyes water as she sits defeated, hand resting on her shoulder once more. She chokes on sobs and cries of pain as she stares down at her skeleton, she almost wants to turn around and look at the mirror, almost wants to forget this awful truth and bask in the sweet beautiful lie of the mirror's image.

But it wouldn't be right for Jiwoo to do that. To turn her back on Hyejoo like that. She manages to hold herself up over her body, she doesn't want to fall on Hyejoo and break something. She tugs her trembling hand away and rests it on her knee, teardrops soaking through her white socks.

Chaewon and Sooyoung remain silent. They're sad Hyejoo is sad, and more than a little confused, but they weren't as close to Hyejoo as Jiwoo was so they let her have her moment. They let her take all the silence she needs to grieve without intervening. 

It all becomes too much for Jiwoo to be down here and she stands to leave, Chaewon and Sooyoung following. They let her lead, walking out of the door after her and clinging to the wall when she stops half way up the stairs. Jiwoo turns around and makes her way back to the door. She takes one last look at the skeleton, one last look at Hyejoo in the mirror, and pulls the door shut, locks it, and sticks the key in the pocket of her skirt. 

She makes her way back up the stairs, Chaewon and Sooyoung following again. 

Jiwoo nearly breaks down again when they get back to their room. The tears are freshly dried on her cheeks as she stops short in the front of the room and sees Hyejoo reading a book in her bed like she was last night. Hyejoo hasn't noticed her yet and Jiwoo can only hear her heartbeat pumping in her ears as she holds her breath.

Hyejoo looks over at her after turning a page and smiles. God, does her smile stop Jiwoo's poor beaten heart. Hyejoo sets the book down and begins to say something before she stops and the smile is replaced with a frown. She climbs down from her bunk, making her way to Jiwoo and the girls in the doorway.

"What's wrong? Why were you crying?" Hyejoo asks and everything is eerily silent as they all wait for Jiwoo's answer. Hyejoo pulls Jiwoo in for a hug and Jiwoo laughs.

"Nothing, nothing's wrong. Just missed my family. Everything's okay now." She lies, sweet smile of her own tricking Hyejoo into abandoning her worry. Chaewon and Sooyoung enter the room, hugging both Jiwoo and Hyejoo.

Jiwoo decides to let herself find comfort in Hyejoo. She did before she found out Hyejoo was just the ghost of a woman from long ago and if Hyejoo doesn't acknowledge the difference, why should she. She'll treat today just like everyday before it. She won't tell Hyejoo and she'll live as she always has, until it's time for her to leave the school and go back out into the world.

Everything can be okay, if Jiwoo lets herself believe in the sweet lie of Hyejoo's comfort, everything will be okay.

And maybe one day, after her time at Loona is over, after she's gathered up the courage to confess to Chaewon and Sooyoung, after she's settled down, after she's finished living the life Hyejoo couldn't-

Maybe she'll come back. 

Maybe she'll spend her afterlife like the ghosts in the library, stuck in a time capsule, frozen with Hyejoo.

Maybe that'll be okay.

Maybe Chaewon and Sooyoung will join them.

It would be nice if they did, if they all ended up together. Like puzzle pieces finally sliding together and finishing the final image it was supposed to paint. It would be nice if Jiwoo could have that.

She prays for it, as she rests in the arms of her girls. She selfishly prays for the eternal love of the three wrapped around her. Jiwoo loves them all so much and now that she has the three of them holding her, she realizes how there was always something missing when it was just two or three of them together. Now that she's found all the pieces to the matching set, she prays that she can have it forever.

Even when death does them part, she wishes to always have the three of them; to remain four even long after forever has passed and forgotten them.

**Author's Note:**

> hmu  
> tumblr - kwillpleasedont  
> twitter - kwillstarship


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